


you are on the fastest available route.

by manberg, mrweeaboowatson



Category: supermega
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Arguing, Blood and Injury, Car Accidents, Local58 AU, Minor Injuries, Other, but not in gorey detail
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-03
Updated: 2020-08-03
Packaged: 2021-03-06 01:01:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,713
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25694689
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/manberg/pseuds/manberg, https://archiveofourown.org/users/mrweeaboowatson/pseuds/mrweeaboowatson
Summary: He didn’t admit it back then, but it had scared Carson. More than he would say out loud, and a part of him wanted to reach out so bad. To ask Matt what was wrong and if things were okay; if he was eating probably and taking care of himself, if he had been getting enough sleep, so on and so on.Almost like clockwork, in came a text.[22:34] Matt has sent you a link.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 5





	you are on the fastest available route.

**Author's Note:**

> NOTE: this is from an AU im working on with a close friend of mine (the collaborator on the fic!), inspired by the internet webseries local58 which you don't have to watch in order to understand what's happening, but makes it more enjoyable if you do! this fic is just a small excerpt of the actual story we have planned - i guess you could call it a side story, but it still ties in with the main overarching story that is yet to be uploaded so look out 4 that ;)
> 
> as per usual, please take note of the warnings and the tags! this fic is purely fictional and isn't written with any ill intent towards the brothers, nor am i wishing death on them or any weird business like that. it's all for fun at the end of the day! (and i doubt anyone will, but just to add it anyways, pls don't send it to anyone involved!)
> 
> anyways, enjoy =)

In the back of his brother’s car, illuminated by the pale white streaking through the window mixed with the yellowish hues of the towering street lamps flanking either side of the vehicle, Carson was aimlessly scrolling through his phone after what had been an admittedly freakish disaster at his friend’s house - if he could even call that thing that had taken their place his friend in the first place.

Matt had been eerily erratic that night; twitchy, giddy, always having some kind of smile or grin on his face that he was clearly trying to hide though his attempts were failing harder than he obviously realised. His eyes appeared sunken and dark from an apparent lack of sleep that showed loud and clear on his already-pale skin, standing out against the milky white flesh and the deep blue of his irises. Hollow cheeks & unkempt hair were present, along with chipped nails that looked as if they’d been bitten to hell and back and clothes that seemed to hang off even more than usual on the male’s already skinny frame.

And that wasn’t even the worst of it, which Carson - along with his brother’s who had the same concern and worries about the appearance of their usually kept-together friend - had thought from the start. No, it was just the effects of what had really taken a toll on Matt, something he was yet to find out until halfway through the hangout. Well, he never really did find out in the end. Matt would never tell them, just brushing it off for them to “wait and see”.

He had seemed so excited to show them, something Carson didn’t really know about but wouldn’t receive an answer for since Matt wanted him to once again “wait and see”, leaving him along with the other two (which should’ve been three, but Matt’s roommate - Ryan - was elsewhere in the house at the time) to wait in confusion.

So, after all the waiting and watching Matt fumbling around with the TV and an array of tapes on the floor, rewinding and trying different things out, what was the big surprise?

A TV station recording? That was what Matt was so fucking excited about?

Back then, Carson would’ve probably made some snarky joke at Matt. Maybe Jackson would take that chance before him, it could’ve been any one of them - but as Matt scrambled back to sit with the rest of them and the smooth, light jingle of the TV station music began to play, something felt off.

Maybe it was the eerie static that seemed to fill up the screen, creating a haze over the dark blue backdrop of the title-card and over the white lettering of the upcoming schedule for the program, or maybe it was the wide & daunting smile on Matt’s face as he watched in eager anticipation for the show to begin.

Now that he thought about it, he never really got the chance to realise what one it might be before Ryan was suddenly in the room, storming out from his room to turn the TV off and grab Matt by the shoulders and hold him upright, asking him “what the fuck he thought he was doing” and “what was he trying to do”.

Matt’s face was unreadable, He seemed mad, upset, furious, scared, so many things at once. No one in the room had the slightest clue why Ryan was so angry, but there was no answer for their many questions before they were being hurried out and having the door slammed on them.

It was all such a blur. A big, confusing, weird blur, but what always stood out was the uninterrupted, unnerving smile that never seemed to leave Matt’s face. The one where his teeth were showing slightly, the one that showed his chapped and cracking lips, the one that wavered and trembled along with the rest of him but had never truly left his face until it dropped into a low frown when he was interrupted.

He didn’t admit it back then, but it had scared Carson. More than he would say out loud, and a part of him wanted to reach out so bad. To ask Matt what was wrong and if things were okay; if he was eating probably and taking care of himself, if he had been getting enough sleep, so on and so on.

Almost like clockwork, in came a text.

**[22:34] Matt has sent you a link.**

Weird. Maybe it was just the thing from earlier. At least it might answer one of his questions.

Carson never really thought to hesitate or be worried about what he might be getting himself into before clicking the link, to which he was instantly redirected to a video that marked at just 3:12 minutes long. Why Matt had it on tape, or if this was even the video on the tape in question, Carson had no clue - but whatever it was, it couldn’t be that bad.

What he was first met with was a black screen and more crackly static, though it was short-lived before he was greeted with an almost retro-looking backdrop with a logo and text to match; but there was something about to logo that seemed familiar, something that didn’t add up straight away but hit not long afterwards - wait, wasn’t that the thing from-

It was, something about an investigation going into it after weird happenings or whatever. Carson never really paid enough attention, nor did he care much for the news in general. Plus, Jackson had been keeping the TV off more regularly recently for some reason that both confused and annoyed Carson since it was the only thing he really had to do ever since they’d been told to stay in their homes as much as possible, meaning even if he wanted to he couldn’t keep up with the news anyways.

He didn’t realise how distracted he was until the schedule for the day appeared, similar to the one he’d seen earlier but with the text changed to fit the program for the day instead.

**4:15am** Show for Children 

**5:00am** Community Roundtable

**5:20am** Focus on… Culture

**6:05am** Morning Local News

‘What kind of fucked up time schedule is that?’ was his first - clearly justified - thought, followed soon after by the confusion as to how this would interest him in any way. Still, just to curb the burning curiosity inside him that wondered just whatever the hell this was, Carson continued to let the video play as he got more comfortable in his seat, tuning out the radio and whatever his brothers might be talking about to focus properly on the video at hand.

As it turned out, ‘Show for Children’ ended up being some kind of...cartoon? Well, considering Matt had an interest for things like that, it wasn’t something completely out of the ordinary but still left the question in the air as to why Ryan hadn’t wanted him to see it - and well, it started out normal enough, at least.

Well, it seemed normal enough, till it got progressively weirder; as the video followed the character of the cartoon-ish skeleton, along with the story itself getting much darker and the music following suit, Carson couldn’t understand how this was meant to be for kids. It was fucking creepy, and the awful grainy and borderline white-noise touch to the music in the back wasn’t helping - and who came up with the idea to make the fucking  _ moon _ of all things scary?

Safe to say, as the end card appeared and everything faded to black to then progress on to a screen listing off credits and whatnot, Carson was vaguely unsettled to say the least. Maybe Matt had just shown him as a ‘hey look at this, isn’t it weird?’ kind of way, and maybe Ryan was just scared of the video which was why he acted out when Matt tried to show the rest of them.

Carson leaned his head back, looking out the window and exhaling softly. It was the only answer that made any sense.

“Hey Jackson?” Carson spoke after a moment of processing what he just watched, now leaning forward to rest his head on the back of his brother’s chair, “Matt just sent me this weird ass video.”

As he uttered the last few words, Carson handed his older brother his phone, watching over the chair as Jackson huffed out a breath and began to watch just as the youngest had moments ago. For the most part, he was pretty quiet, just taking in what was happening and muttering swears under his breath on occasion. 

“The fuck are you guys watching?” Harrison muttered, casting a glance at the two younger brothers between navigating the car with the help of the GPS.

Jackson shrugged. “God, I don’t even know,” He mumbled back, leaning over to hold the phone in the middle of the car’s console and give the eldest a look at the video between steering, “Think it’s the thing Matt wanted to show us earlier, no idea why.”

For a moment, when they’d stopped at a red-light, Harrison looked over to properly watch the video along with the other two and grimaced at the sound of the audio, looking intently at whatever the hell was meant to be happening in front of them. “You weren’t lying when you said it was weird, ‘Car,” Harrison scoffed, sitting back up straight as the video ended and the light turned green.

“You saw the logo, right?” Jackson mentioned, handing the phone back to Carson who leaned back in his seat and looked between each brother as they spoke, “It’s that thing they keep showing on the news - d’you think Matt’s one of those crazy conspiracists or something?” 

Harrison scoffed. “Wouldn’t surprise me,” He replied, “I’d say the crazy conspiracist is Ryan, I mean, you all saw how he scared the shit out of Matt for wanting to show us the thing, right? It was fucking weird.”

“Yeah, but...y’know, what if he had a reason?” Jackson started, “Like...this stuff is pretty serious, they’re saying people are like killing themselves and st-” 

“Really? You believe all that?”

“Harry, they’re showing it on the news, there’s proof-”

“He has a point, y’know,” Carson added in, even if he didn’t really know what they were talking about and where the whole suicide thing came from - he just didn’t want Harrison to get a kick out of thinking he’s right (like always).

It didn’t take long for an argument to break out, brotherly bickering filling the once tranquil peacefulness of the car. Making an attempt to tune it out as best as humanly possible - which was a hard task within itself from how they honestly sounded like they were trying to prove who could be louder than the other - Carson pressed himself into the corner and let his hands rest in his lap, head leaning against the window as he stared at the surroundings passing him by.

Even through the noise, it was hard to block out the eerie music from the video that still stuck in his head; the unsettling pop & crackle noises behind the grainy white noise. Almost like it had lodged itself in a corner of his mind, making him think back to the cartoon and how nonsensical yet equally as unnerving as it had been.

And the moon, how it constantly watched the protagonist, how it smiled and bore its eyes into the figure on the screen. How it was always there, no matter what. 

Carson shivered. Maybe he was thinking too hard into it. After all, it was just a dumb video.

“Harry, we’re not even going the right God damn way! Where the fuck are we?” 

Well, that surely snapped Carson out of whatever spaced-out state he was in, and now that he’d done that he got the chance to look at the surroundings for the first time in a while; it was a heavily wooded area, most of which was covered in dead trees and bushes, showing the full scale of the pitch-black sky above them. How they’d even gotten here in the first place when they didn’t even live near anywhere that looked vaguely like this, he had no idea. All Carson knew was that A. it was fucking creepy and B. he wanted to get out. Clearly, the other two did as well.

“Why are you blaming me? I did what the stupid fucking GPS told me to do, like I keep telling you?!” Harrison shot back, throwing his arms up indignantly for a moment before placing both hands on the wheel, “It’s telling me I’m getting closer so-”

“Closer to what? The middle of nowhere?” 

“Oh, will you stop bitching?” Harrison groaned, “You’re giving me a fucking-”

The car halted.

It went quiet.

Carson lifted his head up, looking up at both Jackson and Harrison in turn, who soon disappeared completely as the car was abruptly cloaked in darkness as the lights shut off - and before anyone could get a word in, it spoke for them.

**‘You have reached your destination.’**

“What?” Harrison started, keeping his voice low for some subconscious reason, “But we’re not even-”

“Turn the car back on, I can’t see shit,” Jackson said gruffly, moving around in the dark to shove his eldest brother before leaning back into his seat and huffing a deep sigh, “Thanks for somehow breaking the GPS, smartass.”

“Guys, please don’t argue again,” Carson sighed as the realisation of them soon beginning another bickering match for the third time this night; he just wanted to go home already, a deep feeling of unease sitting in his gut from what he could guess was probably either the dark getting to him or that damn video again.

In the short moment of silence, all that could be heard was Harrison fumbling with the keys as he tried to start the car again; at the first few attempts, it wouldn’t start, worsening the unease in Carson’s stomach as he began to think about spending the night in this forest of all places, so when the engine finally roared to life he couldn’t help but feel a sense of relief.

Till he looked forward.

Looking through the windshield.

Straight ahead.

His stomach dropped.

It wasn’t just unease he felt as he looked at the form of the creature standing in the thick of the wood; observing its pale white features, freakishly long limbs & spindly fingers extending from them, even longer legs that made it tower as high as the trees. It was so thin, skin sticking to its bones that jutted out from within. It had a face, but with no discernable features; maybe it did, but Carson didn’t have the chance to observe it any longer before the car was filled with terror screams - including his own - as Harrison reserved as fast as he could to get the fuck out of there.

In that moment, Carson felt like his heart got stuck in his throat, though it pounded hard and fast with fear and terror running hot through him as he screamed and sobbed and begged Harrison to drive faster, borderline shaking as he turned around to see whether to figure was still there though it was so hard to tell in the pitch-black dark.

There was so much screaming, so much yelling, swearing, shouts of pure fear from all of them that it felt like the car couldn’t drive fast enough no matter how much they were all begging it too, even if Harrison was practically flooring it in the middle of trying to calm his own panic down.

**You are 500ft from your destination.**

“What? What fucking destination?” Harrison yelled, “Where- where the fuck do I go? Jackson, Ja- what way did we come in?”

“This way! This way, I sw- swear!” The younger shot back in return, pointing in the direction they were already heading.

Carson grimaced, holding his breath as a cold sweat began to drip down his skin. 

**You are 200ft from your destination.**

“200? Jackson, are you- are you lying to me? Is this the-”

“Yes it’s the right fucking way, just- just go!”

Something wasn’t right.

**You are 150ft from your destination.**

Was it?

**You are 50ft from your destination.**

It was.

**You are 15ft from your destination.**

It was getting closer

  
By the time Carson realised, he could only brace himself slightly before-

Everything went dark.

  
It was so dark, pitch-black. The pain, on the other hand, was white-hot.

Searing, painful. It was ripping him up. 

  
There was a crash, right into a tree or ditch of some kind. Something shattered, and there was glass everywhere. At least, Carson could feel it, the shards beneath his fingers and skin, cutting into him and piercing his flesh.

A little closer to consciousness, and he remembered where he was.

Bent forward, head resting on the now-shattered window as the shards of glass sunk their small, jagged & uneven edges into his scalp, along his cheek and jawbone. His lips were cut up in the process, and God knows how much more of him had suffered from the glass too. He couldn’t tell if it had gone in his eyes too, but they burned as well. Everything burned.

His nose was running. Blood. 

His hands were cut up too; remnants of the shattered window glass dashed across them along with the rest of his lap

He felt warm. Warm from the blood. He didn’t know where every cut was, and how much it was bleeding. All the pain felt the same; numbing, overwhelming, nauseating, leaving him dizzy and hazy.

Where were they?

Jackson

Harrison

Carson mumbled. Maybe a little closer to a groan. He tried to say their names

Nothing.

  
  


He looked over, as much as he possibly could. 

Harrison was limp in the passenger seat, head resting against the steering wheel - no, not resting. Maybe bludgeoned would be more fitting, even if the definition didn’t exactly match up. No other word could describe the effect of how much force his head had hit the wheel. It was gory, vile, and in his state, Carson could almost be thankful that he couldn’t see the worst of the accident through the matted hair covering his eyes. 

He mumbled again. A meagre ‘Harry?’ that was met with nothing but silence and the faint sound of the engine sizzling and the clicking sound of the indicator. 

They were so much louder now. It hurt to listen to.

Jackson wasn’t there either. No, he wasn’t even in the car, and the shattered windscreen was enough to prove where he’d ended up. 

Carson choked back a sob. A painful one, tearing up his already hoarse throat as salty tears dripped down his face and stung the many open wounds covering his face, each one eliciting a strained gasp as another layer of excruciating pain piled up on top of one another.

He needed to get out.

He wasn’t safe here.

was he safe anywhere anymore?

Where was it?

It could be here. 

Was it watching him?

He could almost already feel it watching him

It was there, and that was what mattered.

  
  


It was a struggle, trying to open the door when all the strength had been drained from him and even just trying to push down the handle was making him cry out in agony, but he kept trying; frail, weak hands coming up to pull and pull and pull at the handle until  _ finally _ \- it swung open. Now, he just had to get out.

There was nothing graceful about falling out of the car on to the pavement, but with his legs feeling so numb and wracked with ache and pain, there was no way they were getting him anywhere anytime soon. 

On to the cold pavement, he went, and he began to crawl.

Not crawl, as such, more like drag himself along the ground.

He needed to escape, grunting and whimpering in pain as every drag wracked his body with more burning agony till he was practically sobbing and heaving from the nausea brought about by the pain. Everything was too much, and he hadn’t even processed what had not only just happened to him but also what happened to Harrison when he finally saw Jackson.

God, it was awful.

The windshield glass had done a number on him, something Carson couldn’t look at without feeling even more sick to his stomach.

He sobbed once again, but this time it wasn’t from the pain.

No, it was guilt.

Pure guilt.   
Because it was his fault, after all   
His fault for showing them the video, his fault for distracting them   
If he had just shut up, if he had kept it to himself, if he had just ignored Matt   
They’d both be alive. 

Carson trembled, tears running hot & fast down his face while gravely sobs left his throat as best as they could. Everything hurt. It fucking burned. The guilt burned.

He began to crawl again, not towards his brothers, but in the direction of home.

He’d never make it, but the thought of getting there was nice enough to think about. 

Harrison and Jackson were too far gone to save.

He was alone.

  
  


The thing could be anywhere.

It would get him,

Carson knew it.

But home, home, home, home…..

  
  


Carson stopped crawling.

Stopped, and rolled over.

He hadn’t gotten far, and was just a little way ahead of Jackson’s body which had landed right in front of the car.

On his back, Carson stared up at the sky.

He couldn’t hear a thing. Everything was ringing.

His throat hurt, his eyes were sore, his body was getting weaker, he was so close to failing completely and ending up like his brothers.

He couldn’t fight it,

it would always catch up

It would always catch up.

So he laid there. 

Staring up at the sky.

It was so dark.

Everything was dark

He was alone.

He was scared

He was frightened

  
  


But just like it did before

Like he’d noticed in the video

  
  
  


The moon always   
stared back.

  
  


Carson smiled.

He liked to think it was smiling back at him too.

  
  
  



End file.
